That’s what I get asked a lot. Especially when people first discover I’m an only child and they’re perhaps a generation older than me.

Lately, I’ve discovered that I miss spending time on my own and I’ve really noticed it since actually having a 9 to 5.30ish job. I spend most of the day with a bunch of people in an office and answering phones and stuff. In the evenings, I then have to spend time with my parents interacting and stuff.

Which is all quite strange for someone who has been able to spend vast amounts of time on her own over the last 4 years while at university. And has always quite liked spending time alone, or at least, not talking to anyone.

The answer is no, by the way, to the question in the title. I’ve been too used to being on my own for as long as I can remember.

If you’ve found yourself here after googling a name label attached to a gold and blue vertically striped scarf, you have in fact come to the right place. It’s my scarf and I left it in the Cineworld on Broad Street in Birmingham last weekend.

Also, I would quite like it back, thanks.

So, if you do have my scarf, drop me a comment and I’ll email you about it.

Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at a secure facility in northern Baghdad for crimes against humanity.

Iraqi TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time (0300GMT). A representative of the prime minister and a Sunni Muslim cleric were present.

[…]

Saddam Hussein was led up onto the gallows platform and a dark piece of cloth placed around his neck, followed by the noose.

When the hangman stepped forward to put the hood over his head, Saddam Hussein made it clear he wanted to die without it.

The hanging itself was not broadcast.

Saddam Hussein’s rule

In pictures
The execution procedure took just a few minutes.

My first reaction is… that it’s all happened very quickly. Usually there are appeals and stuff and it takes ages before someone is executed.

I still don’t feel that execution is the right thing to do, for anyone, even someone like Saddam Hussein who has done so many terrible things.

US President George W Bush hailed the execution as “an important milestone” on the road to building an Iraqi democracy, but warned it would not end the deadly violence there.

I hope it’s not “an important milestone”. The rebuilding of Iraq shouldn’t be based on death and it’s not like his execution is actually going to magically solve the problems there. Argh. I don’t know. I don’t agree with the death penalty, but I don’t know what I would have done instead (well, apart from less of a shambles of a trial, less of a shambles of a war, less of a war). In some ways, I’m glad that I don’t have to make any of these kinds of decisions myself.